Nuclear Terrorism - U.S. Military Prevention - Research Paper Example

Different groups of mankind always fought for different reasons. The reasons were to protect the religion, to attack the sovereignty, to seize the other’s economy or valuables, to crush the religion or to crush the honor of a nation or a person. However, as the mankind developed into cultures and societies and technology entered the lives of human race, the battles and wars became more intense. If older weapons would have influenced hundreds of people to die, the newer weapons can influence millions of people to die in minutes. Thus it is nearly impossible to stop war and there will always a race to develop more and more technological weapons. The weapons of mass destruction like the nuclear weapons were also created to find a better solution for the war, to maintain peaceful environment and to protect the sovereignty of a region. United States of America is the first country that developed, tested and imposed nuclear weapons. The results were seen to be drastic and a kilogram of a nuclear matter is enough to make destruction that a more than 20 kiloton of TNT can. Thus a smaller amount of nuclear matter is as much effective as tons of explosives. Thus it is economical, diverse and drastic for a war. However, the nuclear attack was imposed only one time by United States on Japan and after that the attack is still not imposed on any other country under any condition. As the human race realized that there is an infinite amount of energy in the nuclei of the atom, many scientists began trying to find solution to extract the massive amount of energy for the civilian as well as military use. However, the first scientist that discovered the method to unstable the nuclei of the atom was ‘Enrico Fermi’ while scientist named as ‘Leo Szilard’ became his second in discovering the immense amount of energy (Williamson & Rearden p13-p117). The more the science developed in the area, the field progressed similarly. However, at first, the technology was not tested to be utilized for the civilian purposes. The energy remained undiscoverable until Hiroshima and Nagasaki ware attacked by the United States of America as response to World War 2. The attacks were considered as the consequence of the Japanese invasion and the Japanese attack on the ‘Pearl Harbor’ in ‘1941’. However, the consequences were drastic and no one after the Hiroshima and Nagasaki attacks was permitted to impose such an attack on any country under any situation. The technology that has many security threats but one threat is considered as the major threat particularly after the 9/11 attacks is the terrorism and it is prime duty of the U.S military to develop such strategies to secure its nuclear weapons from any kind of terrorism. The process, through which the immense amount of energy is released from the atom of the unstable element (mostly Uranium) having a heavy nuclei, is known as the fission reaction. In this reaction the nucleus of the atom of Uranium is spitted, which makes the nucleus unstable and breaks the nucleus into its constituent smaller nuclei that are about half the weight of the parent nucleus. The process evolves an immense amount of energy. The smaller nuclei further split into four nuclei and thus the chain reaction continues even all the element is converted to energy. At every split, an infinite amount of energy is released that can produce drastic effects. However, the better solution evolved to control the immense amount of energy and the methods are utilized in a nuclear power generation plants. The U.S nuclear weapons program is started in about 1930 as the merge of three great forces (U.S, Canada and United Kingdom). The program is often remembered as Manhattan project, which was begun to defy the ‘Nazi German Atomic Bomb Project’. The demand of that time was to find such war technology that can defend the U.S in any severe condition and didn’t let the enemies to impose war on U.S. At the very first no automated system was invented to impose nuclear attack and in order to attack the Japan, U.S utilized a specially constructed bomber aircraft to attack the Japan. However, in modern technology, nuclear missiles can be launched by utilizing an automated system. The results of nuclear attack were catastrophic. Almost about 70,000 died immediately as the nuclear bomb exploded in the first attack of Hiroshima but as the time elapsed the death toll increased to about 140,000 people at the end of year 1945 (Williamson & Rearden p13-p117). However, the effects of the nuclear attack remained for many years after the attack. The immense heat wave evolved from the nuclear explosion caused severe burns to the people residing in the locality. In the second nuclear attack at Nagasaki, the death toll increased to about 80,000 people. Few authors have the view that the attack was imposed on Japan but it was a warning to Soviet Union, Germany and other opposing nations. The attack on Hiroshima was imposed on 6th August 1945 and the next bomb was dropped after three days. However, more catastrophic weapons of mass destruction, like hydrogen bomb, were researched by the Soviet Union in the similar period. The explosion of the nuclear bomb declared U.S. as the first Nation to develop and test the nuclear weapons. After that a race started between many nations to become a nuclear power as soon as possible. As the race continued to explore the nuclear weapons, some countries that may not have the responsibility to hold such a power built themselves a nuclear power and thus it is necessary to impose restriction on the countries. However, it is difficult to make any country to stop exploring the nuclear energy, as it deals with the sovereignty of the country. In this way, some countries with extreme threats terrorism are also included in the list of countries that have the nuclear weapons. The countries that have greater threat of terrorism include Pakistan and Iran. However, Iran’s Nuclear weapons project is in progress. Nuclear weapons remained much effective both in the times of war as well as to maintain a peaceful environment. Only one nuclear attack was imposed till the nuclear weapons were made. The attack was imposed on Japan by U.S. in warfare situation. After the first nuclear attack, no other nuclear attack was made on any country. However, nuclear weapon tests were carried at different regions in the world. The effectiveness of the nuclear weapons can be determined by the damage it makes in terms of human life and loss of valuables. Nuclear weapons remained effective in the situation of war as well as to maintain the peace. In the World War 2, if the nuclear bomb would have not dropped on the Japan, the war would have not ended and the death toll would have increased to a much higher amount. However, nuclear bomb broke the back bone of Japan and war took an end (Williamson & Rearden p13-p117). It has the ability to settle the war in minutes, but the decision to impose nuclear weapons on a country is a matter that should be thought a lot to prevent the life loss of innocent people. Thus nuclear weapons remained effective in the time of war, as it has the ability to settle down the war immediately. The weapon is effective to maintain peace, as the consequences of the weapon are so drastic that no country wants to be in such position that any nuclear country would attack it. Thus, dialogue is considered better than a war. The future effectiveness of the nuclear weapons can be determined by the past effectiveness of the nuclear weapons. It can be noticed that United States of America haven’t dealt with any kind of war or no country imposed war on United States having known that U.S has the most reliable nuclear weapons. However, terrorist attacks have an alternate solution than to impose nuclear war, as no country can be considered to directly have involved in the terrorist attacks and terrorists are in the form of groups and organizations. In the similar way, no attack is imposed on other nuclear power countries like United Kingdom, France etc. Thus, nuclear weapons are effective in maintaining peace all over the world. In the view of many authors, the level of threat of a nuclear warfare is increased due to the development in the sector by many countries. However, some people have the view that the development in the nuclear energy progressed a way to a decreased level of threat of nuclear warfare. The circumstances would lead to an immense nuclear war, if conflicts surround the future world. On the other hand, the rising level of terrorism threats present that some of the countries that have the nuclear power. The concern that is rising day by day is the low security of the nuclear weapons. As, the security is the most important thing that should be enhanced in order to protect the nuclear weapons and materials related to the nuclear weapons like isotopes, elements, machinery and knowledge. Ukraine that cannot be considered as the nuclear power gave up the research to produce nuclear weapons and the country wanted to utilize low enriched Uranium to be utilized in the nuclear power plants (Civiak, p5-p111). United states have certain doubts about the security of nuclear weapons in some countries including Pakistan. However, more than 40 countries are doubted to have security threats on about more than 2,000 tons of highly enriched Uranium and plutonium that is utilized in nuclear weapons. Assurance of security is made by Pakistan’s Prime Minister ‘Yousaf Raza Gilani’ as Pakistan is much affected by the terrorist attacks and the country has about 90 deadly nuclear weapons (Borger, np). Besides the Pakistan’s Prime Minister Assurance, Harvard University's Belfer Centre for Science and International Affairs presents a report in which the author writes that Pakistan's nuclear weapons "faces a greater threat from Islamic extremists seeking nuclear weapons than any other nuclear stockpile on earth". UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, have the view that "nuclear terrorism is one of the greatest threats we face today" (Borger, np). As, Russia and United states have over 90% of the nuclear weapons, the involvement of countries other than Russia and United States, in the dialogue about reduction in the nuclear weapons has the major concern for the United States. The major aim in reducing the nuclear weapons is the negotiations between these two countries. The involvement may turn the negotiations more complex. Moreover, the involvement of the other nations in the negotiations for reducing the nuclear weapons may influence the relations of U.S with its Allies including United Kingdom and France. The arguments depicts Cold War situation. Some years ago, authors, George Shultz, William Perry, Henry Kissinger, and Sam Nunn stated in the Wall Street Journal, depicting the position of United states and the future of nuclear weapons, that “reassertion of the vision of a world free of nuclear weapons and practical measures toward achieving that goal would be, and would be perceived as, a bold initiative consistent with America’s moral heritage.” The author pointed out the fact the world is on the verge of sparking the nuclear war and efforts should be made to prevent any nuclear catastrophe. The article emphasizes on intense need of stopping the research in the field of nuclear weapon and the need of the time is “intensive work with leaders of the countries in possession of nuclear weapons to turn the goal of a world without nuclear weapons into a joint enterprise” (Borger, np). There were many security plans that were employed to enhance the security of nuclear weapons. A few strategies failed, while some of the strategies have positive effects on the security issues related to the nuclear weapons. However, some strategies like the strategies of the President George W. Bush government presented many failed strategies. The strategies were made to provide a security to U.S. and its nuclear weapons; however, the results were far adverse and government only faced the economic crises due to the failed strategies. Iran was not a nuclear power nor it started any program to develop nuclear weapons and nor at that time but the war imposed on the Iraq made the region to be destabilized and risks related to the nuclear weapons security increased to a higher level. Other countries in the region like Iran and North Korea have doubts that U.S will attack their sovereignty and thus the Iran and North Korea made certain progress in the nuclear weapon program increasing the risks to the nuclear weapons. Iran and North Korea increased the pace of nuclear research programs. In the regions of Southern Asia the Nuclear Arm race picked a pace. Many countries need more power and thus a race for technology that is necessary for the nuclear weapons began. The words from the U.S. have lost their worth and U.S. lost trust. It largely affected the treaties for the security and sovereignty. Thus a total failure of Bush’s Government strategies was seen. In 1945, the military strategy was to utilize the nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki (Japan) worked according to the military plans. The two bombs; one having Uranium based explosive and the other having plutonium based fuel have worked quite well. At that time the military strategy worked as there was no better option than to utilize the nuclear to take the control of the situation. The appropriate strategy at that time was to utilize the weapon. President Bush addressed on Nation Security Strategy of United States of America, September 17th 2002 that, “The gravest danger our Nation faces lies at the crossroads of radicalism and technology. Our enemies have openly declared that they are seeking weapons of mass destruction, and evidence indicates that they are doing so with determination. The United States will not allow these efforts to succeed. ...History will judge harshly those who saw this coming danger but failed to act. In the new world we have entered, the only path to peace and security is the path of action (National Strategy to combat Weapons of Mass Destruction, p1-p6).” The ownership and greater than before chance of utilization of nuclear weapons by aggressive nations and terrorists are truths of the modern protection environment. Thus, a serious situation that the United States armed forces and suitable national agencies remained prepared for any adverse situation like that of a war or a utilization of nuclear weapons on United States. In the publication ‘National Strategy to Combat Weapons of Mass Destruction’, Government agencies and military owner ship have the view that, “We will ensure that all needed capabilities to combat Weapon of Mass destruction are fully integrated into the emerging defense transformation plan and into our homeland security posture. Counter proliferation will also be fully integrated into the basic doctrine, training, and equipping of all forces, in order to ensure that they can sustain operations to decisively defeat WMD-armed adversaries” (National Strategy to combat Weapons of Mass Destruction, p1-p6). Moreover at another place depicting the Government’s strategy in the publication ‘National Strategy to Combat Weapons of Mass Destruction’ depicts that “The United States, our friends and allies, and the broader international community must undertake every effort to prevent states and terrorists from acquiring WMD and missiles. We must enhance traditional measures - diplomacy, arms control, multilateral agreements, threat reduction assistance, and export controls - that seek to dissuade or impede proliferant states and terrorist networks, as well as to slow and make more costly their access to sensitive technologies, material, and expertise”. In this way the military’s priority is to protect the nuclear weapons from any hostile country or from the terrorist’s organization to prevent the utilization of any weapon of mass destruction. This can be done first by maintaining a good environment and secondly through nuclear Nonproliferation (Bunn, Harrell & Malin, p3-p30). Detection of nuclear weapons and materials depend on the material used n the nuclear weapons. Nuclear weapons can be as small as pen riffles or as larger as oil tanker. The United States of America built such weapons, which are larger in size and have a powerful impact as compared to first version of the weapons, in cold war situation. A nuclear weapon made by the terrorists may be a larger one due to lack of technology and research. A nuclear weapon is incomplete without fissile material, which acts as a nuclear matter and nuclei of the fissile material break to evaluate energy. The commonly known fissile material are uranium, isotope 235 (U-235), plutonium and isotope 239 (Pu-239). Naturally occurring Uranium is about 99.3% U-238 and 0.7% U-235. However, enrichment process is able to give concentrated isotopes. If the amount of isotope U-235 exceeds to 20% after enrichment, the material is known as highly enriched Uranium. However, in most cases the weapons utilized an enriched product of about 90% or above that amount. On the other hand the plutonium utilized in the weapons is about enriched to about having 93% Pu-239. About 5 to 8 Kg of plutonium is used to fuel a nuclear bomb (Medalia, p2-p94). The process of the nuclear weapons detection make utilization of high energy photons, different semiconductors lime pure germanium and sometimes the scintillator material. The scintillator material radiate energy when an ionizing particle strikes the element. The radiated energy is mostly in the form of light. These scintillator materials are often utilized in the electrical components, watches and even on clothes that radiate energy in dark. Electromagnetism is also employed to detect the nuclear weapons and materials. Most of the time the level of photons utilized in the detection devices is the same as in the radiating devices, having the same energy. Thus X-ray photons or Gamma ray photons are utilized as the enrgy of the photons are high. However, the generation of these kinds of photons is different as Gamma rays are created in process of splitting atom’s nucleus. The process of evaluating the gamma ray photon is the same. A radioactive isotope recognition device, is capable of detection the radioactive isotopes by making a gamma-ray spectra. As X- Rays are considered to have higher energies than that of the gamma- rays, the devices that make utilization of the X-rays have higher energies and powers than of gamma rays devices thus the devices have more penetration powers. bremsstrahlung process is utilized to generate the X-ray beams in the X rays detector devices. A magnetic field is utilized to move the charged particle out of the detector device and to the detectable device. Energy is released by the radioactive material as the X-rays or Gamma rays strike the radioactive material (Medalia, p2-p104). Radioactivity It is a fact that the radioactive atoms always emit energy due to unstable behavior. The energy can produce various radiations. The type of radiation that a radioactive material gives helps in identifying the type of material. The different type of radiation also helps in determining the type of material and thus a detection mechanism identifies the type of radiations. The detection mechanism identifies gamma rays and neutrons. The United States and other ally countries utilize several techniques and technologies to detect the nuclear weapons and materials utilized in the nuclear weapons. Radiation “pagers” techniques The radiation pager techniques are capable of detecting even a small of radioactive materials through the radiation; however, the device should be placed near the nuclear weapon or material. The most important aspect they are portable devices, lighter in weight and least expensive devices. They utilize detector materials. Radiation portal monitors (RPM) Radiation portal monitor are devices, which are capable of detecting the radioactive materials and weapons by detecting the radiation from a vehicle. These devices utilize a sheet of scintillator material that radiates energy when it detects an ionizing particle. The scintillator material is often plastic based like PVT and comes in a moderate price. The major drawback of the device is that it is unable to locate the object that is producing the radiations. Besides that, the device is not capable of detecting some of the isotopes; however, newer versions have the capability to detect the isotopes. Radioactive isotope identification devices Radioactive isotope identification devices are portable devices and can be as small as carried in hand to detect radioactivity. The basic operation of these devices utilizes software to detect radioactive isotope. A crystal of germanium is utilized in the devices that oscillate when an ionizing particle strikes the device. Gammy ray- spectrum is created by utilizing the software. Such devices are much sensitive to outer environment and there should be better cooling strategy of the device to make it work properly. Mechanical means of cooling and utilizing the nitrogen are the available options. The major drawback of the devices is the short range of the devices and the device is unable to screen a cargo container. Radiographic imaging systems Radiographic imaging system utilizes high energy photons for the detection of radioactive devices. The devices are mostly utilized to scan the cargo containers. The photons entering the containers make a radiographic image of the container. The scan process can be programmed to be performed automatically or manually (Medalia, p2-p105). The image of nuclear weapon or material appears to be black or white depending on the type. Thus nuclear weapons and materials can be easily captured in the image. The device has a vast range and is the most sensitive devices. Works Cited Bunn, Matthew, Harrell, Eben & Malin, Martin B. “Project on Managing the Atom: Progress On Securing Nuclear Weapons And Materials: The Four-Year Effort And Beyond”. Harvard Kennedy School. Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. March 2012. Print & Web. Can also be retrieved from http://www.nuclearsummit.org/files/security_progress_report_2_482949862.pdf Borger, Julian. “Pakistan nuclear weapons at risk of theft by terrorists, US study warns”. The Guardian. Aapril 12, 2010. Web. Retrieved on 25th June 2012 from http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/12/pakistan-nuclear-weapons-security-fears National Security Publication. “National Strategy to Combat Weapons of Mass Destruction”. December 2002. Print. Can also be retrieved from http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/nspd/nspd-wmd.pdf Medalia, Jonathan. “Detection of Nuclear Weapons and Materials: Science, Technologies, Observations”. CRS Report for Congress. Congressional Research Service. June 4, 2010. Print. Can also be retrieved from http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/nuke/R40154.pdf Civiak, Robert L. “Transforming the U.S. Strategic Posture and Weapons Complex for Transition to a Nuclear Weapons-Free World”. Nuclear Weapons Complex Consolidation (NWCC) Policy Network. Washington. April 2009. Print. Can also be retrieved from http://www.nuclearfiles.org/menu/key-issues/nuclear-weapons/issues/policy/us-nuclear-policy/strategy/nwccpn-report-20090401[1].pdf Williamson, Samuel R., Rearden, Steven L. “The Origins of U.S. Nuclear Strategy, 1945-1953”. Palgrave Macmillan. New York. 1993. Print. Read More